The Burgundians cover art

The Burgundians

A Vanished Empire: A History of 1111 Years and One Day

 Preview
Try Premium Plus free
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Burgundians

By: Bart van Loo, Nancy Forest-Flier - translator
Narrated by: Nigel Patterson
Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £4.99

Buy Now for £4.99

About this listen

At the end of the fifteenth century, Burgundy was extinguished as an independent state. It had been a fabulously wealthy, turbulent region situated between France and Germany, with close links to the English kingdom. Torn apart by the dynastic struggles of early modern Europe, this extraordinary realm vanished from the map. But it became the cradle of what we now know as the Low Countries, modern Belgium and the Netherlands.

This is the story of a thousand years, a must-listen narrative history of ambitious aristocrats, family dysfunction, treachery, savage battles, luxury, and madness. It is about the decline of knightly ideals and the awakening of individualism and of cities, the struggle for dominance in the heart of northern Europe, bloody military campaigns, and fatally bad marriages. It is also a remarkable cultural history, of great art and architecture and music emerging despite the violence and the chaos of the tension between rival dynasties.

©2019 Bart Van Loo (P)2023 Tantor Europe France Medieval Military Middle Ages Western Europe Imperialism Royalty

Listeners also enjoyed...

 The Thirty Years War cover art
Twilight Cities cover art
The Eagle and the Lion cover art
Byzantium cover art
Battle for the Island Kingdom cover art
The Emperor Charlemagne cover art
The Bad Popes cover art
The Weimar Years cover art
Vlad the Impaler cover art
The Habsburg Way cover art
The Holy Roman Empire cover art
Richard II cover art
A History of Britain: Volume 1 cover art
The White Ship: Conquest, Anarchy and the Wrecking of Henry I’s Dream cover art
The Great Mughals and Their India cover art
Crown and Country: A History of England through the Monarchy cover art
All stars
Most relevant
When the English think of Burgundy they think of wine and food and not the impact the area has had on European history. This book brings that to history to life. I learnt a great deal and I am now looking to visit Bruges, Ghent, Michelin and Dijon to see where the Dukes and their peoples lived.

Excellent history

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
a good narrative history, somewhat compromised by the arthurs frequent divergence into way too much info about art, and a somewhat Christian bias.

decent history

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I do love a history book that radically shifts your perspective on relatively familiar events.

Here, by grounding your viewpoint from that once influential chunk of land that was Burgundy - including that bit the wine comes from in what is now France and the older kingdom including bits of Switzerland and the Low Countries of what is now Belgium and the Netherlands - you get a very different understanding of the politics of the Hundred Years War, the Holy Roman Empire, and late medieval Europe as a whole.

The whole experience was rather disconcerting, if I'm honest. Which is why, though this is quite possibly five stars, I've left it as four. I'll need a re-read to confirm - because TBH there was so much unfamiliar material and ideas in here that I found it hard to follow the flow at times. This is, I think, more due to my ignorance than the book itself - but was likely worsened by listening to the audiobook without a physical copy to hand to check maps / the index / skip back to check things, etc etc.

The narrator does a good job of the Dutch/Flemish names, but his voice is a tad high pitched and grating at times. Made it a little hard to keep focused.

Fascinating alternative angle on medieval Europe

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The author really managed to create a lively depiction of the historic characters involved, including the ‘word on the street’. It gave an insight I didn’t expect and provoked a need to visit the area described with all these places that were the background of these politics, business and personal drama.

The narrator did surely his best with the dutch pronunciation but there is room for improvement. For a native dutch it is a lot of stumbling to disregard. But a very good narration otherwise!

Most enjoyable history

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Reads like an exciting novel. Excellent stuff. He really brings the era to life

superb Read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews